


It's Like Here

by sasnill



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: (but not that far), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Plans For The Future, Proposing to Propose, post-s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-12 09:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasnill/pseuds/sasnill
Summary: Late nights, mountains, creative endeavours, an ever-expanding to-watch list and the future: a quiet weekend.





	1. There's a rooftop arena in Tokyo.

Judging by the lack of light streaming through the curtains it was still night, so Isak hadn't been asleep very long. He felt the lack, too; his mind was taking a long time to kick into gear and his body felt heavy, sleep-warm, but the space beside him in bed was empty. Perhaps that was why he'd woken. He pulled on some underwear and padded -- stumbled, clumsy fingers rubbing sleep from his eyes -- towards the kitchen. 

Even sat on the floor with his back against the cabinets, laptop open and resting on his crossed legs. He was dressed: track pants and a shirt, which Isak took to mean that he'd been up long enough to lose the strange insulation of sleep. The faint bluish glow of the screen illuminated Even's face in portrait, picking out the flat plane of a cheek, the tip of his nose, but Even wasn't typing; he was scrawling something on a notepad by his side, which he moved out of the way when Isak sat beside him.

"Did I wake you?" Even's voice was barely above a whisper.

Isak shook his head then rested it against Even's shoulder, hand coming up to curl around his arm. "Can't sleep?" he asked. 

He felt Even shrug. "I had an idea."

Isak kissed his shoulder and looked at the taskbar: 4:26. And how long had Even been up? he wondered. Had he slept at all? Or had he just lain in bed until Isak had drifted off, having ideas? 

Now that Isak had ascertained the time his eyes drifted up: a document took up half the screen, formatted for a few lines kind of like a script but in other parts more like a novel, incomplete paragraphs littered with notes-to-self filling up the white space. The other half of the screen was taken up by the browser, which was open on the wikipedia page for futsal.

"Will you come back to bed soon?"

Even's shoulder tensed under his cheek for a moment before he said, "You don't need to worry."

"I'm not worried," Isak said. He lifted his head. Even was looking at him, mouth twisting with doubt. Isak kissed him. 

It wasn't untrue. They didn't have to be anywhere until tomorrow evening, and it wasn't Even's first sleepless night. Not everything was a symptom all the time. Sometimes it was just life - some nights Isak couldn't sleep either. Tonight he could, though; the warmth that had lingered on his skin was beginning to dissipate but the longer he sat on the kitchen floor the heavier his eyelids felt, so that the time between blinks became longer and longer as he fell in and out of a doze. 

He should have dragged the blanket along with him, he thought hazily, just as the click of the laptop lid closing brought him back to something resembling awake. At some point between blinks Even had put his arm around Isak's shoulders, leading Isak to slump more heavily into his side. He sat up and let Even lead him back to bed.

"Why futsal?" Isak asked once they'd both settled, curled towards each other. His voice was raspy. He cleared his throat.

Even smoothed Isak's hair back from his face and said, "There's a rooftop arena in Tokyo."

"Okay...?"

Even paused. "Have you ever seen Lost in Translation?"

Isak shook his head.

"We could watch it," Even said. Then he added, on a breath of laughter, "I don't think you'd like it."

"We can watch it," Isak whispered. It made Even smile. "Is it sad?"

Even pursed his lips. "It's a little sad. Not too sad."

"Not too sad," Isak echoed.

"No." 

He reached out to touch Even, fingers curling loose in the hair at the nape of his neck.

"Would you want to go to Tokyo?" Isak asked.

"Like, one day?" Even asked. Isak nodded. "Yeah. I'd like to go everywhere one day."

Isak tried to picture it in his mind. Him and Even packing their suitcases -- they'd be the proud, responsible owners of suitcases -- and sustaining the boredom of planes in order to make their way to somewhere new and exciting. Somewhere Even would have chosen because he saw it in a movie, or maybe because he spun a globe. The thought made Isak want to buy Even a globe. 

"We could do that," Isak said. "We could take a gap year."

Even smiled. "Around the world in three hundred and sixty-five days."

"That could be fun."

"Would you want to?"

Isak shrugged a shoulder. Even was stroking his hair, coaxing him to sleep; it wasn't a situation conducive to making expensive decisions. "Maybe, yeah," he managed. "I think so."

Even laughed softly. "It doesn't sound like it."

"I'm just... I'm thinking of hiking, though," Isak murmured.

"Hiking?"

"I don't want to think about hiking. It's making me tired."

"We don't have to go hiking," Even said, indulgent.

Isak managed to curl his fingers against Even's neck in a way that kind of resembled a tug, and Even got the idea; he slid an arm under Isak's head and moved in close, legs tangling together under the blanket. 

"But will you want to go hiking when you wake up?" Even asked, which made Isak laugh.

"Probably," he conceded. "Yes."

It was getting light outside. Isak had spent longer sleeping on the kitchen floor than he had in bed but he felt pleasantly heavy and he was warm again, cradled against Even's chest.

"I could propose to you on top of a mountain," Even said.

"Like Mount Fuji?"

"Yeah."

Isak nodded. "Okay."

Even pulled back slightly to look down at him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Isak whispered.


	2. I have to figure out what it's for.

The curtains were still drawn, but it was light outside; the room was bathed in soft greys and the occasional stark highlight that made Isak squint to look at. He scrubbed at his face and sat up. Even was sitting at the table, laptop and notepad out again.

"Hey," Isak said.

"Good morning," Even said, eyebrows raised.

There was a cup of tea beside the notepad and the laptop screen seemed to have an almost sticky effect; it took a moment for Even to drag his gaze away from it to look at Isak instead. His hair was wet, which made Isak think Even probably hadn't been up that long, but the dim light made his face pale in a way that made him look like even his blood was tired, which made Isak think that, actually, he had.

"What's the time?"

Even glanced back at the screen before saying, "Quarter past eleven."

Isak nodded. That wasn't too bad. He shoved the blanket off and pulled on some clothes. "Have you eaten yet?"

"Not yet."

Isak kissed him. Then he made them toast.

"What's the idea?" he asked once he'd sat down.

Even held the toast in his left hand, which left his right free to alternate between typing and scrolling. "Have you seen Memento?" he asked, mouth full.

"Uh..."

Even laughed. "No?" It was a warm, bright thing.

"It sounds familiar," Isak hazarded.

"Does it?" Even teased. His foot pressed against Isak's under the table, softening whatever blow to Isak's ego he thought he'd landed. "We'll watch it."

"Will I like this one?"

"I think so," Even said. "But - okay, I was going to say that Memento would explain it, but -" He nudged the notepad across the table and tapped a rectangle in the centre of the page with his pen. "This is the start," he said. There were arrows leading away from and towards the centre rectangle, connecting it to others. Some of them were densely packed with writing, like the first; others were mostly scratched out. Some of them had drawings and no words at all: a fence, a flower, a crowd. "It all goes back and forward from here, until everything that was confusing is explained."

"So this is a movie, or..."

Even shrugged. "It might be. I see it in my head like a movie. But that doesn't mean anything." He pulled the notepad back towards him and crossed the fence out. Then he thought better of it and scribbled out the cross. Then he drew a circle in the top corner of a new rectangle. He gave it sun rays, then turned it into a cat, which made him laugh for a moment before he scribbled the whole thing out and turned to a fresh page.

"Where does futsal come into this?" Isak asked.

Even looked up at him. "I don't know yet," he said. He looked utterly delighted by the fact. "Sometimes it's also called mini-football. I like that. It's like here."

Isak tilted his head.

After a moment Even said, "Here? You know?" He swept an arm out, indicating --

"Like where we live?" Isak guessed. "It - reminds you of home?"

Even relaxed again, nodding. "So I have to figure out what it's for. It's that kind of thing."

"A home kind of thing?"

The connection seemed extremely tenuous, but he liked the sentiment. It was a sweet sentiment.

"A home kind of thing. Yes," Even agreed, lifting his cup to his lips. He took a sip, which was followed almost immediately by a faint sound of disappointment. "I left it too long."

"It's cold?"

"It was my last tea bag," Even said mournfully.

"I could heat it back up on the stove," Isak offered. He pushed his chair back.

Even gave him a look.

Isak frowned back, affronted. "What?"

"I'll just drink it," Even said, but set the cup aside.

Isak finished his toast, showered and dressed and, as an afterthought, opened the curtains to reveal a pale, overcast sky and watery sunlight, which was a nice change. The last few days had been miserably hot. He checked the weather on his phone, hoping perhaps for some rain to really seal the deal, but there was no luck on that front: it was going to warm up again later. Still, it would be nice to go for a walk while it was cool. Tea wasn't the only thing they'd run out of; Isak's toast had been all crust, and they needed beer for tonight anyway, and he'd feel better if Even didn't have to go because he hadn't really slept.

"Are you going out?" Even asked when Isak kissed him goodbye.

"Yeah," Isak said. But then he lingered to kiss him again, hands on Even's shoulders and knee resting on his thigh.

Even let his hand slip from Isak's waist to his hip. "When?"

"In a bit," Isak murmured, and leaned in.

By the time Isak was ready to leave -- again, for real this time -- it had begun to warm up, so that part of the plan was a bust. On the bright side, there was no longer any hurry. He could lie in bed and stroke Even's sweat-damp hair, and kiss his lips, and smile when he smiled, and watch him fall asleep.

"Weren't you going out?" Even asked, as though he'd only just remembered. His cheeks were flushed.

Isak nodded. "In a bit."

Even laughed, soft and drowsy. He closed his eyes.

After a while Isak pulled his clothes back on and flipped through Even's notepad, passing more scratched out clusters of rectangles than unblemished ones, to get to an empty page so that he could write:

_Getting beer + tea etc. Text me if you want anything else <3_

He left it on his pillow where Even would see it first thing and headed out into the sunny afternoon.

Even texted him half an hour later.

> _So let's see..._
> 
> _?_
> 
> _Ding Dongs, a bag of chips,_  
>  Cap'n Crunch and some onion dip  
>  _It's sugar and salt, space and schism,  
>  the yin and yang of munchie Taoism_
> 
> _Haha  
>  But seriously_
> 
> _I got my favorite beer, Carlinger,_  
>  and pre-sweetened Kool-Aid you eat with your finger  
>  _You lick your finger, then you stick it in the bag,  
>  then you stick it down your throat but not too far or you gag_

A woman brushed past him, pulling Isak out of his phone and back to - the middle of the aisle, where he'd come to a stop to stare in amusement at the screen. He shuffled closer to the shelf on his right, sent Even a heart, and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

Even had stayed in bed. The only difference was that now he had clothes on and he was sitting rather than lying down, one knee bent up to rest his notepad against. The television was on now, too, though the volume was low; Even had only been using it for background noise. He did that sometimes.

"Did you like the song?" Even asked, pen pausing on the page and eyebrows rising with interest.

Isak laughed and shook his head. "Where do you find that shit?" he asked.

Even set the notepad aside and came over to lift the shopping bags from Isak's hands. "You didn't?"

"No, I did," Isak said. "It was funny."

"Good." Even smiled. "Hi." His hair was just as Isak had left it, sticking up at the back of his head.

"Hi," Isak said. He slid an arm around Even's neck to pull him in for a kiss, which Even laughed into; the bags he'd taken knocked into Isak's side when Even tried to cup his cheek.

When they parted, Even said, "Did you get tuna?"

"No?" Isak said, which made Even laugh for real, head thrown back and eyes creasing closed. "You should have said!"

"The clue was in the song!"

"I didn't realise you were sending me on a cryptic fucking scavenger hunt," Isak grumbled. He turned Even around and herded him towards the kitchen to unpack. "What the fuck, Even."

"I thought it was obvious," Even said, but Even thought everything was obvious most of the time, and most of the time it wasn't, because most of the time Even's brain was abstract as fuck.

"I thought you were just trying to make it about blowjobs."

Even put the bags on the counter and turned back to face him, eyebrows raised. "Why would I do that?" he asked.

Isak rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Buy it yourself."

Once they were done unpacking Even backed him against the counter and kissed him. "It was mostly about blowjobs," he said.

Isak laughed. "I knew it. I know you."

Even grinned. Whether it was due to the daylight streaming in the windows or the nap, he didn't look so pale anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is ["Too High for the Supermarket"](http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/the_uninvited/too_high_for_the_supermarket-lyrics-415869.html) by The Uninvited, and it has nothing to do with blowjobs. Nor does my tumblr, [sasnill](https://sasnill.tumblr.com)!


	3. I think it's for making me realise it was a stupid idea.

The thing about parties was that they were only really about hanging out with friends half the time. The other half of the time they were about finding someone to hook up with and Isak already had that fixed so he hung out with the boys, encouraged them as one by one they peeled off from the group to try their luck - and laughingly consoled them when they returned.

"She has a girlfriend," Jonas announced, leading the way into the kitchen to pull another beer from the fridge.

"That's too bad," Mahdi said. Magnus nodded sympathetically.

Isak leaned against the counter and patted Jonas' shoulder, but Jonas was in a good mood; all he had to say was, "You tried," for Jonas to shake it off.

"Exactly, man," Jonas said, nodding decisively. "That's what counts."

Three girls came in soon after and gathered around the fridge; the shortest, a brown-haired girl, knelt down in front of the open door to rifle through a mostly-depleted six pack on the bottom shelf. There were only two bottles left, which she passed to her friends before standing up again.

"Could you pass one of mine?" Isak asked, setting his empty can aside. "In the bag on the second shelf, the - yeah. Thanks," he said, reaching past Jonas -- who had been reduced to holding a conversation with Mahdi that consisted mostly of eyebrows and elbow nudges -- to take the can with a smile.

"You can take one too," Mahdi said gallantly. Isak's eyebrows shot up.

"Yeah?" the girl said, looking from Mahdi to Isak and back again. "Is that okay?"

"Of course," Mahdi beamed. "Go ahead."

"What the fuck," Isak said once the girls had left with Mahdi in tow. 

"He just gave her your beer!" Magnus gasped, awestruck. "Did you see that?"

Jonas laughed. "That was smooth as hell."

Magnus headed out a few minutes later, and after a while Jonas squared his shoulders and left to try his luck again as well. Which left Isak to nurse his beer alone, at which point he realised that he hadn't seen Even in a while. Even was good, when he put in the effort, at being the kind of social butterfly who spent the whole night letting himself be passed from person to person to conduct the exact same small talk script all night, and good at making it look effortless, although Isak knew it wasn't. But it did mean that once they got separated it was easy to lose track. People wanted to be around him. 

Isak wanted to be around him. 

He pushed off the counter -- swayed a little, unsteady; leaning against it had made him feel more sober than he actually was -- and wandered back out to the rest of the house.

Even was easy to spot in a crowd, at least; Isak found him leaning against a wall in the lounge room, grin on his face and beer in hand. It wasn't one of the ones they'd bought: not only did people want to be around Even, they also wanted to give him their beer. The crowd parted as Isak moved through it, revealing Sana leaning against the wall beside him. Isak nudged his way under Even's arm and smiled up at him until Even paused mid-sentence to kiss his cheek.

"Have you been here long?" Isak asked, turning to Sana.

"A couple of hours," she nodded.

"Really? I didn't see you," Isak said. Then again, he had been in and out of the kitchen all night. But now he was here. He wrapped his arm around Even's waist and settled in.

Unlike in the kitchen it was almost impossible to hear anything over the music out here, so Isak didn't bother contributing to the conversation. He was content to let Even and Sana talk while Isak sipped his beer and gazed at them with intoxicated adoration. He liked that Even was friends with his friends, he thought, which made him wonder, suddenly, if Sana felt the same way about him. He hoped so. 

He was just about to ask when Chris and Vilde emerged from the crowd to drag her away. Isak could only watch her go with a vague sense of disappointment, but it didn't last long; Even nosed at his cheek, pulling Isak's attention away from Sana's retreating back.

"Hi," Isak said. 

"Hi," Even laughed. He licked his lips and leaned in, noses bumping, for what Isak thought was going to be a kiss but instead, an inch from his lips, said, "Do you want to get out of here?"

Yes, Isak thought, lips parted. Suddenly, yes. He nodded. Even pushed off the wall and took his hand instead of kissing him. 

Magnus and Mahdi had disappeared amongst the crowd, but they did find Jonas, who was hooking up with a girl Isak didn't recognise by the front door. Isak clapped him on the shoulder as he followed Even out. 

It was blessedly cool outside after the humid noise of the party, and the last faint tendrils of dusk on the horizon combined with the streetlights to give everything a diffused, almost soft look, like visual insulation. It made everything feel quiet. Secret.

"Did you have fun?" Isak asked.

Even nodded. His eyes shone with reflected light. "I got a lot of free beer," he said, which made Isak laugh and think of Mahdi.

"Probably one of them was from me," he said. "People were handing it out all over the place."

"Oh? You sent one over?" Even teased. "Were you trying to pick me up?"

"Like I had to try," Isak scoffed. "Look at me."

"I'm looking," Even said fondly.

"Exactly."

Even squeezed his hand, then let go to wrap his arm around Isak's shoulders instead. A comfortable silence grew between them. Isak let his head rest on Even's shoulder and gave himself over to the pleasantly dizzy feeling of fading drunkenness not yet marred by hangover as they walked. The only sounds were their feet on the footpath and distant, intermittent cars.

After a few blocks he asked, "Have you figured out what futsal's for yet?"

"No," Even said. He laughed. "I think it's for making me realise it was a stupid idea."

He didn't sound at all upset by the thought but Isak felt compelled to say, "It wasn't," because it reminded Even of home and Isak liked that. He liked it so much.

"No?"

"No."

Even kissed his hair and guided them around a corner, at which point Isak realised that, although they were headed in the right direction, he didn't recognise their surroundings. It certainly wasn't the way they'd come.

"Where are we going?"

"I have no idea," Even said. He looked delighted. "Let's find out."

They passed houses and shops, turned corners and crossed roads, choosing their path on a series of whims -- because Isak saw a car that looked cool parked half way down a street, or because a dog was barking a block away and they wanted to go and see it -- but always, vague in practice but with definite purpose, headed in the direction of home.

"How are you doing?" Isak asked as they detoured through a park. He didn't really mean anything by the question, but the fact of his own asking it -- the fact that he wasn't dancing around it with other, smaller questions -- made him feel suddenly tentative.

"Good," Even said. Something in Isak's voice must have given him pause, though, because he grew thoughtful for a moment, then said, "But not too good."

Isak laughed. "Okay. That's good."

"Were you worried?"

"No," Isak said honestly. "I was just wondering." If it was time to worry he wouldn't need to ask.

Even nodded. A car passed. Bushes along the path interrupted its headlights, making it feel more far away than it really was. 

After a while Even said, "How are you doing?"

Isak tightened his arm around Even's waist. "Good," he said. He smiled.

"That's good," Even said. 

They sat under a tree for a while and stared at the branches swaying in the breeze above their heads, revealing stars and then concealing them only to reveal new ones a moment later. Even stretched his legs out. Isak picked up a fallen leaf and began, carefully, to deconstruct it. Even took his hand when he was done.

After a while Isak said, "You could propose to me here."

Even tilted his head towards him, contemplative. "I could."

"Would you want to?"

Even hummed faintly. "You don't want a mountain?"

"I mean, we have mountains here," Isak said, shrugging. "We don't have to go anywhere special."

"That's true," Even agreed.

The breeze picked up. It smelled crisp, like a tease of autumn. It hadn't rained today - but maybe it would rain tomorrow instead. That would be nice. They could lie in bed and watch it. 

The grass was getting cold. A car passed, not very far off, bass thundering.

Isak brushed his lap free of leaf flakes and got to his feet. "Wanna go?"

Even nodded and took his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on tumblr at [sasnill](https://sasnill.tumblr.com)!


	4. But you're not.

At some point in the night Isak had rolled away with the blanket and then, too hot, had thrown it off the side of the bed completely, but now he was cold. He retrieved it with clumsy fingers, tugged it across and up so that it covered them both again. Even didn't stir. Isak lay on his side and watched him for a while; his hair stuck out in tufts across the pillow and his lips were parted in sleep, peaceful. 

Something tight in Isak's chest faded. He hadn't even realised it had been there until it was gone.

The kitchen was a mess; the dishes neither of them had bothered to clean yesterday -- or the day before -- were starting to pile up. Isak rubbed his cheek and contemplated a stack that looked particularly precarious in the shadowy pre-dawn: Even's doing, because only Even would decide to balance two plates on top of a bowl with a cup in it. 

Isak shook his head. It wasn't even day yet; he could do the dishes later. For now he tidied what he could while he waited for his toast out of a reluctance to risk waking Even coupled with a desire to give himself a bit of counter space to sit on while he ate. Old wrappers, empty envelopes, three bottle tops whose bottles had long since been evicted. The rubbish needed to be taken out, too; it was piled high with crumpled up balls of paper. Isak picked one of them up and unfurled it, curious, revealing a mess of scratched out rectangles. Whatever Even's idea had been, it wasn't anymore. 

Even wandered in, rumpled and vague, just as Isak was finishing his toast. 

Isak said, "You're awake."

It wasn't quite stating the obvious; Even hardly looked awake at all but he nodded and said, "So are you." 

He slotted himself between Isak's knees and muffled a yawn against his neck. Isak set his empty plate aside and gathered him into a loose hug, watched Even consciously wrangle his limbs into returning it. 

"You should go back to bed." 

"Maybe," Even said. "But you're not." His eyes were closed. His voice was rough with sleep.

"I can," Isak said.

That had been his plan for today, he remembered. Of course, his plan had also been that it would rain, but no one could have everything.

Even may have been tired, but he wasn't so tired that he couldn't tilt his head up in order to raise a sceptical eyebrow. Isak ignored it. He could win this argument just by sliding off the counter and nudging Even back to bed; Even gave no resistance whatsoever.

Isak had only gotten up because he was awake, anyway. Dishes could wait. Everything could wait.

They slept. After a while they woke up enough to watch a movie but Even fell asleep again half way through, so Isak turned the volume down and drew patterns on the back of Even's shoulder with his fingertips instead.

It started to rain. Isak closed his eyes.

The next time he woke it was bright outside. The rain had stopped. The clouds had parted. Even had opened the curtains; now he was sitting beside him. Isak rolled onto his back and blinked up at him.

"What's the time?" he asked.

"Just past ten."

Isak inched closer to rest his head in Even's lap. "Have you been up long?"

"No," Even said. His fingers were light in Isak's hair. "Half an hour, maybe?"

Isak nodded. Then he reached up to tug at Even's shirt until he got what Isak was asking for and slumped down so that Isak could rest his head on his chest instead.

After a while he asked, "What happened to your idea?"

"Hm?" 

"The script, or whatever it was going to be."

"Oh." Even waved a hand dismissively. "I couldn't figure it out."

"I liked it, though."

Even laughed. "You don't even know what it was about."

"It was about -" Isak stopped. He pulled his lips between his teeth and tried to think. "I know what it was about," he said, although now he wasn't so certain. "You told me."

"Yeah?" Even squeezed his shoulder. "What did I say?"

"It was about some movies, and - and a weird version of football that no one fucking plays, I don't know." The fact of his own ignorance annoyed him. He latched onto the only thing he truly remembered. "You said it reminded you of here."

Even kissed his forehead. "It did, kind of."

Isak looked up at him. "It doesn't anymore?"

"I just think it was... it got..." he trailed off, thoughtful. Eventually he settled on, "confused. There was too much in it. It's like -" he stopped again, casting about for something to focus his thoughts. "It's like here. Yes. And that sounds simple at first but then there's all the stuff in here, and why it's here, and me and you, and why we're here. And everything that we are - all the things that made us who we are up to now. And who we're going to be next week, or in - in a month, or... more than a month. A year. Ten years. Do you know what I mean?"

Isak nodded. He kind of did.

"So trying to narrow that feeling down into something small, it's impossible. It's too big. It became fractal." Even shrugged again. "So it wasn't about anything, really. In the end. Because it's like... what's the synopsis?"

"Of here?"

"Yeah."

Isak thought about it. Or, rather, he tried to think about it. Mostly he just thought about how he was trying to think about it, though, because now that he understood what Even had been trying to condense -- the vastness of it -- it did seem impossible. There was a lot. Where did a person even start? Where did they stop? And then multiply that by two. And then put them here.

His gaze came to rest on the wooden chair closest to the bed. It hadn't been pushed in properly, so that it sat slightly askew from the table. Even had thrown one of Isak's hoodies over the back of it yesterday in his search for an inexplicably missing shoe, and there it remained.

"That," Isak said. He pointed.

Even looked at the chair for a moment, then said, "That's it?"

"That's the synopsis."

"The synopsis is you don't clean up?"

"What?" Isak pushed himself up on an elbow in order to more effectively convey his indignation. "No. What the fuck. The synopsis is you mess up all my shit."

"It's your hoodie."

"You put it there."

"I did?" Even looked up at the ceiling, head tilted. 

"And I was going to do the dishes but you wanted me to come back to bed," Isak said, which as far as he was concerned settled it, but Even was laughing at him. Isak rolled his eyes and pushed at Even's cheek, tilting his face away.

"Sorry," Even said. He took Isak's hand, brushed his lips over the backs of his fingers.

Isak lay back down. "Whatever," he said. "It was too early anyway."

Even laughed again, quieter. Isak tilted his chin - allowing more than asking, but asking a little bit, too, for Even to kiss him. He felt Even's lips quirk up as he complied, followed by Even rolling onto his side so that they could be closer, pressed together, knees overlapping. 

"If you really want to," Even murmured, "you can wash the dishes now."

Isak didn't bother to dignify that with a response.

Even brought him a glass of water, after, which was sweet but for the fact that Isak had to sit up to drink it, which he grumbled about. Even grinned and smoothed his hair from his face, unfazed. 

They showered and dressed. They made food. Isak did the dishes and Even took out the rubbish. They made a half-hearted attempt at sorting out their clean clothes from their dirty ones and decided to postpone actually taking anything down to the laundry just yet. Then they lay back down and tried to watch the movie again, but Isak couldn't concentrate.

"Is that why you want a mountain?" he asked. "To propose to me on. Because it's big?"

He'd been thinking about it. The vastness of them in Even's head. 

Even looked like that hadn't occurred to him until Isak said it, but he nodded. "I guess so," he said. He laughed at himself. "Is that stupid?"

They were so small. Or - not small. Not uncomplicated, either, because nothing was uncomplicated. But they were... mundane, in a way that granted certainty instead of boredom. Dishes and shopping and songs that Even turned into stupid jokes and late nights on the kitchen floor. Not easy, exactly, but not hard, either. Not something that needed to be figured out.

"No," Isak said. "But would it be okay if I proposed to you here instead?"

Even nodded. Then he paused, turning the thought over in his head, and nodded again. "I'd be okay with that."

"Cool."

Even kissed him. When he pulled back it was just enough to be able to say, "Is it because you don't want to go hiking?" which made Isak laugh.

"No. What are you saying?" He frowned, feigning offence. "Pick a mountain. Pick five. Shit, I don't care. I'll climb them all if you want."

Even raised his eyebrows, amused. "Every mountain?"

"With no shoes," Isak nodded. "And faster than you. But I want to ask you here."

"You can ask me here," Even said, soft. He stroked Isak's cheek. 

"Good."

"I'd like that."

"Me too," Isak said.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also over on tumblr at [sasnill](https://sasnill.tumblr.com)!


End file.
